Talk:Wheatgrass

Factual accuracy

I would like to see objective research backing up the following claims:

"Wheatgrass grown under artificial conditions indoors in trays does not have the proper balance of nutrients found in wheatgrass grown outdoors under natural conditions"

"Growing wheatgrass in a tray in warm greenhouse conditions is not optimal and is certainly not natural"

"The chemical composition is not balanced"

"the juice from this "artifically grown" wheatgrass tends to have a bad flavor as well as a high bacteria and mold content which is the usual cause of the nausea"

As it stands, most of these claims are poorly defined. Under what standards do we judge wheatgrass production to be optimal or suboptimal? Where is the evidence indicating higher bacteria and mold content for wheatgrass grown indoors? Let alone evidence suggesting that this is the cause of nausea, or even that indoor wheatgrass causes more nausea than outdoor wheatgrass. As for being "not natural", similar arguments could be made for the outlawing of pants. This section reads like a new-age manifesto.

RESPONSE TO ABOVE:

Until the information was added about the importance of growing wheatgrass naturally, this piece did read like a "new-age manifesto." The additional information about the importance of growing wheatgrass as nature intended was obviously designed to combat the newage nonsense about growing wheatgrass indoors in trays.

It should obvious to anyone that plants forced to grow 20 times faster than nature intended in temperatures that are three times warmer than nature intended are not as nutritious as plants grown under natural conditions. The photographs of the pale hot house wheatgrass being fed into a juicer compared with the dark green wheatgrass growing in the winter outdoors should prove to anyone who understands even elementary agriculture and nutrition that tray-grown wheatgrass is not as good as the real thing. Since you wrote the above, a link has been added comparing hot house wheatgrass with the wheatgrass grown under natural conditions.

For more scientific evidence that addresses your concerns, an excellent review of literature on wheatgrass and other cereal grass is Cereal Grass - What's in it for You. This review includes more than 130 scientific references in the bibliography.

Regarding the problem with mold in growing wheatgrass under unnatural conditions, even Ann Wigmore agreed that mold is a problem with wheatgrass grown indoors in warm conditions. Mold is a well-documented problem, and several hot-house operations have been shut down because of it. Since you wrote the above, an additional link has been added that also addresses the mold problem.

Allergic reaction

Not adding this to the article because I don't have a citeable source for it, but ... wheatgrass juice can cause a nasty allergic reaction in some people, even people not allergic to grasses usually. --FOo 08:05, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Species

A package of wheat grass powder I have says that the species is Triticum aestivum. However, this article states that it's a different species. Which is correct? Badagnani 02:03, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Health Claims

"These claims have neither been proven nor disproven." has been replaced with "these claims have not been proven." The burdon of proof should be on those who consider wheatrgrass to be beneficial

Nice edit.

--AaronOfAbsalom 12:12, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. Wikipedia is a source of information, it is not a claims court. If too little research has been done to make any substantial conclusions about wheatgrass, the article should simply say so. --Karuna8 15:16, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Saying something has been neither proven nor disproven in this case is misleading, as medical science cannot disprove that wheatgrass is beneficial. Swax 05:57, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Health Benefits

I've started work on a health benefits section, relying particular on a recent article in Choice magazine which is primarily focussed on debunking myths about wheatgrass. I've noticed that the article's available online, I'll try and continue to address the health claims from that article and other sources if I get time. If someone feels like getting stuck into it though, go ahead.

Oops, didn't sign... Pacey 09:43, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I've removed this from the Health Benefits section - "It is also worth noting, however, that while a kilogram (about 2 pounds) of vegetables may contain more vitamins and nutrients than a shot of wheatgrass, a kilo of vegetables is an amount that very few people can eat in one sitting, which makes it impractical in every day life. Also, a kilogram of vegetables contains over 300 times the amount of calories in a shot of wheatgrass." The first sentence is irrelevant, since a small salad contains more nutrients than a shot of wheatgrass, and most people can fit a small salad into their daily meals. The calories statement needs a source. Pacey 00:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Quesitonable neutrality

The only sourced information on this page are articles critical of wheatgrass. Someone has to take the time to find reputable counter-opinions. Further, there is clear bias in the way the article is written: it lists so many anecodotal examples of health benefits in a row as to insinuate that we're witnessing a placebo effect. Someone needs to take the time to find which health benefits are more and less supported by research. This someone is not me. Whoever added all the references to the single negative source should have found at least one reputable counter-source to not make the article so terribly imbalanced. Hpatenaude 16:23, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Addressing your concerns

• Firstly, with regard to the sources, I did actually put up some citations to positive sources but they were removed because they were links to commercial websites. Almost everyone supporting wheatgrass is also selling it, or selling some other kind of health program associated with it. The problem is that there aren't any reputable scholarly sources supporting wheatgrass, as far as I could ascertain. Having said that I don't think there's anything wrong with citing claims made by companies, particularly where competing claims are also being presented. I'll check Wikipedia's policy in this regard and I may reinstate some of those sources at a later date. Had I been able to find any scholarly sources supporting wheatgrass consumption I would have used them. As an aside, the transcript of the Landline article is, for the most part, fairly positive about wheatgrass. You only need look at the title of the article to establish that: "healthy for the body and bank account."
• Secondly, I dispute that there is a bias in the presentation of the material. It is an empirical fact that many proponents of wheatgrass claim that it has some or all of these health benefits. Putting those claims together isn't intended to discredit them in any way. It would simply look messy, in my opinion, to list each of the claimed health benefits seperately. If you feel they should be listed in this way, go ahead and do it. Furthermore, the only health benefit that is directly disputed here is that '30ml of wheatgrass is equivalent to a kilo of veggies'. This claim was included here because it is commonly made, and it is, according to the only studies I could find, demonstrably untrue. I could find no evidence to support the claim.
• Thirdly, you complain about "all the references to the single negative source". The source you're referring to is only cited three times, and one of those citations is positive: the assertion that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting the benefits of wheatgrass use.

Finally, I should point out that the article does nothing but assert facts. I am aware that an assertion of fact can still be considered non-neutral according to Wikipedia's policy guidelines. As such I am removing the only pieces of the text which I feel may fall foul of this distinction - The phrase "these claims are untrue" and the wording of the final sentence in the section. I will then remove the 'neutrality disputed' tag. Pacey 09:36, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I should also emphasise that if you still feel the article isn't from a NPOV, feel free to put the tag back on. Pacey 10:20, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

This biased description of a "fast food salad" has no citiation (or basis in fact) and should be removed: "however due to the high level of processing and lacing the vegetables with chemicals to preserve the salads for several days, most of these nutrients are stripped from the salads." 1. I have worked at fast food restaurants prepping salads - we used fresh vegetables and the only "chemical" applied was "Dihydrogen monoxide": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax 2. what "processing" and "lacing" "strips" nutrients ? Additives and preservatives may not be "health" but how do they strip nutrients? 3. I'm a newbie - do I remove this garbage or will some elite hax0r fix it for me? 206.210.72.22 15:32, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

• I see it's already been removed, but to answer your question, if you notice something that's incorrect be bold in editing it.

Isn't it Wheatgrass Juice?

This whole article seems to be about wheatgrass juice, and yet Wheatgrass juice links to Wheatgrass. Seems backward. --Karuna8 20:53, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Objection

User:Drbrucek added this comment to the Usage section of the article. I moved it here:

The average dose listed here is larger than the "large" size you can buy at a "juice" bar. There needs to be more citations about that 2-4 ounce size as well as taking it 5 times a day. That does not sound right.

--Heron 16:47, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Rolling over in his grave?

The line about making this Schnable fellow roll over in his grave is a little over the top, no?